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Armistead Maupin
, U.S. |citizenship = American |alma_mater = University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |occupation = Author |spouse = Christopher Turner (2007–present) |parents = |children = }} 'Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr.'Pronounced "Maw''pin' as read in English, rather than rhyming with the French "Gauguin." "Armistead Maupin" happens to be an anagram of 'Is a Man I Dreamt Up.' (Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up was the title of a 1990 BBC documentary on him.) However, neither the name nor Maupin himself were actually invented. He recalls: "One person even wrote: 'I know for a fact that you don't exist. You're really a lesbian collective in Marin County.' (Sometimes I feel like a lesbian collective in Marin County, but I'm not.)" See: Oft Asked Questions. (born May 13, 1944) is an American writer, best known for his ''Tales of the City series of novels, set in San Francisco. Early life Maupin was born to parents, Diana Maupin and Armistead Jones Maupin, in Washington, D.C.. Soon afterwards, his family moved to North Carolina, where he was raised.'Growing up Gay in old Raleigh – in The Independent of Raleigh, North Carolina, June 1988 – autobiographical memoir He says he has had storytelling instincts since he was eight years old. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became involved in journalism through writing for The Daily Tar Heel.A Conversation with Author Armistead Maupin – on KUOW-FM radio, 2007-06-19 After earning his undergraduate degree, Maupin enrolled in law school, but later resigned from it. Career Maupin worked at WRAL-TV (Channel 5) in Raleigh, a station then managed by future U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, who also delivered the station's well-known editorial segments throughout his management of the station in the 1960s. Helms nominated Maupin for a patriotic award, which he won. Maupin says he was a typical conservative and even a segregationist at this time and admired Helms, a family friend, as a "hero figure." He later changed his opinions dramatically — "I've changed and he hasn't" — and condemned Helms at a gay pride parade on the steps of the North Carolina State Capitol. Maupin is a veteran of the United States Navy; he served several tours of duty including one in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Maupin's work on a Charleston newspaper was followed with an offer of a position at the San Francisco bureau of the Associated Press in 1971.My First Glimpse of The City – in Guest Informant, 1998–1999. Maupin recalls his first experiences of San Francisco.He has said of San Francisco that he had "no sense of it being a gay mecca" and has called it "this amazing city that embraced me, that had made me aware of my true self", and has said "what really floored me was that the straight folks in San Francisco were so civilized about homosexuality." (in the New York Times interview) He says he had known he was gay since childhood, but didn't have sex until he was 26 and only decided to come out in 1974 when he was about 30.For Armistead Maupin, There Are Still Tales to Tell – Interview in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He agreed to be identified as a homosexual in a "Ten Most Eligible Bachelors" article in San Francisco magazine.Letter to Mama – Michael Tolliver's coming out letter, a response in the book to his parents' participation in Anita Bryant's real-life anti-gay Save Our Children campaign. Maupin used the letter to serve the same purpose for his own parents, who followed the Tales serial. The same year, he began what would become the Tales of the City series as a serial in a Marin County-based newspaper, the Pacific Sun, moving to the San Francisco Chronicle after the Sun's San Francisco edition folded. Personal life Maupin's former partner of 12 years, Terry Anderson, was once a gay rights activist (Maupin himself has done much of that sort of work),Remarks for the Closing Ceremonies of the Gay Games IV, Yankee Stadium, June 25, 1994Armistead Maupin at the National AIDS Memorial Grove, located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and co-authored the screenplay for The Night Listener. He lived with Anderson in San Francisco and New Zealand. Ian McKellen is a friend and Christopher Isherwood was a mentor, friend, and influence as a writer."The First Couple: Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood" – Armistead Maupin interviews Christopher Isherwood for The Village Voice, Volume 30, Number 16 Maupin is married to Christopher Turner, a website producer and photographer whom he saw on a dating website. He then "chased him down Castro Street, saying, 'Didn’t I see you on Daddyhunt.com?'"Armistead Maupin: The quick-witted author mined his own experience for The Night Listener – in Time Out New York.Five Questions for Christopher Turner: Daddy-hunt site entrepreneur knows of which he posts – Interview with Christopher Turner in the San Francisco Chronicle Maupin and Turner were married in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on February 18, 2007, though Maupin says that they had called each other "husband" for two years prior. He enjoys doing public readings of his own works and has recorded them all as audiobooks. Maupin shares a grandfather with English singer Sarah Jane Morris On being a 'gay writer' Bibliography Tales of the City * * * * * * * * Other novels * * Awards * 2007, Barbary Coast Award, presented by Litquake Literary Festival, San Francisco * 2006, Best Gay Read Award, presented by the Big Gay Read Literature Festival, in the UK * 2001, Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Book Award * 1999, Capital Award, presented by GLADD Media Awards References Further reading * Gale, Patrick. Armistead Maupin. Bath, Somerset, England: Absolute Press, 1999. ISBN 1-899791-37-X External links * Armistead Maupin official website * * Armistead Maupin at Random House Australia * Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval on The Book Show, ABC Radio National, from Brisbane Writers' Festival, September 2007 * Literarybent.com – Maupin's previous website, archived on the Wayback Machine; most material is not on the new website * * GLBTQ.com: Armistead Maupin biography – GLBTQ.com * Armistead Maupin Interviewed Category:1944 births Category:American novelists Category:American screenwriters Category:Gay writers Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Living people Category:United States Navy officers Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Category:American LGBT military personnel